The 4th-most-popular instrument in the 18th-century (by numbers of publications—after keyboard, violin, and flute) was the French Baroque chamber bagpipe, then called the musette.  Hundreds of publications survive for this instrument, many by excellent composers unknown to modern audiences because they specialized in an instrument that is usually never heard today, and wrote music adapted to instruments with a prominent drone texture—many of these pieces just don’t sound right without the drones, so are rarely performed.  Most of this repertoire is chamber music, written for small ensembles of varying sizes, so bagpiper Dick Hensold will be joined on this program by soprano Maria Jette, harpsichordist Bruce Jacobs, violinist Joe Dolson, and flutist Anita Rieder.

The repertoire for the musette is largely shared with the vielle a roue, an 18th-century aristocratic hurdy-gurdy that has the same drone configuration as the musette, but with a slightly wider range.  (A couple of pieces on this program were originally written primarily for vielle).  My research into this repertoire is informed by hurdy-gurdy scholar Dr. Robert Green, who published the definitive text on the 18th-century aristocratic hurdy-gurdy, and who has given me much advice on repertoire, and also access to his collection of 18th-century musette/hurdy-gurdy music.

 

In studying this repertoire as a whole, a pattern emerges in regards to how the drone was handled.  Many of the pieces, in fact the vast majority, according to Dr Green, are short tunes that don't modulate to different keys at all, and stay in the style of simple folk tunes.  A second approach, which was apparently short-lived and not very influential, was to write music in a typical baroque style, using the standard modulatory formulae of the high baroque.  A third approach was to adapt the usual harmonic and modulatory formulae, and create another system that suited the needs of a drone instrument.  For instance, these specialist musette composers avoided modulations to the relative minor (C to a minor, for instance), and instead used the parallel minor (C to c minor).  This was done frequently, but the easiest example to hear this on this program is in the second minuet of the Petzold minuets, where, from the parallel minor (dm), the tune then modulates to the parallel major (F), with the drones buzzing happily along in D, giving an almost jazz-like effect.  Where the composers wanted to modulate to the relative minor, they had the musette drop out (and the drone would cease at the same time) for a section, and the other instruments proceeded to the undesirable key drone-less.  (This convention sometimes leads to a violinist sitting on stage for most of a 13-minute cantata, only to play a few bars in the relative minor!)  There was certainly some disagreement among 18th-C composers as to how far you could modulate with the drone (contemporary comments confirm this), but there is also documentation that the adaptations were very intentional and carefully planned.  In fact some composers, while keeping the drone firmly in mind, made a point of pushing the envelope harmonically.  Dr. Green specifically singled out the character piece L'Unique, by Jean-Baptist Dupuits as an example of this, with it's 26-bar pedal point.  This program features these more harmonically sophisticated examples, played on a close relative of the Baroque musette, the Northumbrian smallpipes, a quiet bagpipe suited to chamber music.  Almost all the music on this program was written with drones in mind, whether present in this performance or not.

 

A note on the use of the Northumbrian smallpipes in this performance: The Northumbrian smallpipe is the most closely-related instrument in existence to the baroque musette.  They have a similar tone, due to both having a double reed in the chanter and a narrow cylindrical bore, and so also have a similar volume.  They are also similar in having about the same range and chromatic capability, a requirement once you start to modulate.  Both instruments have drones that can be set to 2 different keys, and both have the ability to not only play ornamentation, but to articulate notes in the manner of a conventional instrument, an ability not shared with most other bagpipes.  Musically, the comparison is close; historically, the connection is murkier.  The musette's popularity declined around 1765, after a vogue lasting around 90 years.  The Northumbrian smallpipes were developed into their current form (and the form played on this concert) in the years around and following 1800.  Previous generations of pipe historians believed that the Northumbrian smallpipes were “descended” from the musette, but this theory has come under criticism more recently, since evidence of a similar bagpipe existed in Germany and England concurrently with the musette.  But I believe the reality is more nuanced, with significant influence coming from both pipemaking traditions.
 

For further program notes, see the repertoire list below:

 

     The only JS Bach piece that I'm aware of that imitates a bagpipe, but it does so quite sucessfully, with a drone in the bass that continues throughout.
Hornpipe in Abdelazar, by Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

     This short piece was not written for the pipes, and modulates in the conventional baroque pattern, as an example of why they didn't do this.
Minuets in G and g, by Christian Petzold (1677-1733)

     The name of this well-known pair of minuets is as stated, but done here in D and d minor (see notes above)
Aria from the Cantata, La Musette, by Pierre De LaGarde (1717-1792)

     A late work by baritone De LaGarde which gives some cultural context for the musette. “Love (Cupid) no longer needs his victorious quiver: when he wants to capture a heart…talents united with charms are the true guarantors of its glory” The musette is thus seen as a symbol of peaceful love.
L’Unique, by Jean-Baptist Dupuits des Bricettes (1720-ca. 1759)

     This is a character piece, IOW, a single movement which in this case demonstrates the harmonic lengths the composer was willing to go to with the instrument.  Originally written for the vielle a roue, another drone instrument, this piece is playable on recorder, which has exactly the same range.  The piece mimics the Vivaldi type of concerto structure, albeit with a million ornaments.  The 26-bar pedal point at the end is particulary notable.

     This Cantatille (or, short cantata) only exists as a fragment.
Les Plaisirs de Champigny, op.18, by Jacques-Christophe Naudot (1690-1762)

     A wonderful suite for three sans bass—the violin and the drone do it all!
Sonate “D’Acut”, by Philibert DeLavigne (c. 1700-1750)
Margoton (Traditional French Song)

     This is the instrumental part of an “Opera Comique”, the French version of the ballad opera.  The fast movements are essentially variation sets on the folk song “Margoton”.
Cahan O'Hara Rondeau, by Turlough O'Carolan (d. 1738) and Dick Hensold

     The theme to this rondeau was written by the blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan, and the couplets (additional variations) were written by Hensold, using some of the modulatory formulae of the musette composers.
Le Bouquet (cantata), by Jean-Baptist Dupuits des Bricettes

Bios:

Maria Jette has performed with countless orchestras and chamber groups, in operas, and at music festivals throughout the country and abroad, as well as here with the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of MN, Lyra Baroque, and many others! She was also a regular guest on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion in its last 20+ years. 

Dick Hensold is the leading Northumbrian smallpiper in North America, and for the past 25 years has performed and taught in England, Scotland, Japan, Canada, and across the United States. He also has a B.M. in early music from Oberlin Conservatory, and has published and lectured on early Scottish music. He is a 2006 Bush Artist Fellow. 

Since Bruce Jacobs’ musical debut at First Avenue, he has performed with the Eglantine Consort, Bach Society of Minnesota, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, Rose Ensemble and Consortium Carissimi. He was a founding member of Banchetto Musicale in Fargo-Moorhead. Jacobs studied organ performance with Ruth Berge at Concordia College in Moorhead and continuo through the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. 

Joe Dolson is associate concertmaster of the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra. A  Macalester College graduate, he has freelanced as a violinist since 2000, performing everything from performance art music to classical and romantic string quartets, to English and Scottish Country Dance music. Interest in historical dance led him to study baroque performance practice with violinists Marc Levine and  Marc Destrubé.

Flutist Anita Rieder has traveled the globe, performing in Mexico, Japan, Austria, and England. A founding member of Chicago Baroque Ensemble and Haymarket Opera, she played as first-call sub with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera, Grant Park Symphony.  Anita plays Baroque flute with the Bach Society of Minnesota and Trinity Episcopal Church in Excelsior.

More on the baroque musette: https://caslabs.case.edu/medren/baroque-instruments/musette-baroque/ 
More on Dick Hensold’s baroque bagpipe performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgDJ6xA4pGc